Happy Birthday ...

Good morning everyone, and Happy Last Day of May.

Today would have been my first husband's 64th birthday. I wanted to post this for myself and my children -- Andy, Doug & Cara -- just as a small Memoriam to someone we loved and cared about very much -- Dwight Andrew Cooke. He was a loving father and husband, and just a special person. To us he was a big, loving Teddy Bear. So many, many people have told us all how much he touched their lives and how much he meant to them too. He loved to pull pranks and tease (ask my daughter about the kitchen cabinets!) and read and laugh and watch movies on TV with Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. Though complications of Diabetes took him from us nearly 16 years ago, we still miss him a lot. You never "get over" losing someone you love -- you only learn to live with the loss and try to move on. I've posted a couple of new songs (ok, 3!) on here, and if you know "The Dance" by Garth Brooks, you'll understand when I say that I'm extremely lucky that I got to dance twice ...

Tomorrow is June 1 (can you believe THAT!), and we'll be posting some new design information and there'll be pictures (not teasers ha ha) on www.ladybuglane.com.

Until June ...
Jennifer

Remember our fallen heroes ....

"Land of the Free because of the Brave"

Good morning, and Happy Memorial Day! Just wanted to tell everyone to have a wonderful day today, and to please keep in mind and heart our fallen soldiers, and thank the ones that we are privileged enough to have remaining with us. I "swiped" the picture above just to put on here, and I do hope the person I stole it from will forgive me.

Got quite a bit of printing done this weekend, and hope to finish it up in a day or so. But golly -- printing on one little lone printer sure takes some time! Sigh ... then you gotta fold 'em, paste the picture on and bug 'em and bag 'em. LOL! Oh well, I'm proud that I'm able to do this and that (sometimes) people actually like my designs!

Well, enough of this yakking from me. Off to make the baked beans for the Memorial Day picnic with friends. Until next time ...

Jennifer

Happy Sunday!

Good morning and happy happy Sunday to all!

Hubby is back from Canada -- YAY! He had to go there for a class and I sure missed him! Kinda lonesome around here with just CocoPuff (chocolate poodle) and Cheeto (orange cat) to talk to -- but they are pretty good conversationalists. Although ... I gotta say sometimes Miss Cheeto just can't be bothered! Then again .....

Remember I told you guys that someone stole mail out of my mailbox? Sigh ... methinks we need a fence. A BIG fence. Last night some things walked off my back porch ... I hate it, but evidently someone needed it more than us. Well -- enough of that. On to more positive things.

The stitched piece for "Let Freedom Sing!" is with the framer and will hopefully be back next week so we can get it photographed and pictures printed. Charts are done and ready to be printed -- just need to get more ink for the printer. Sounds impossible almost to get it done and to the distributors by June 1 ... but if I work 24 hours a day ... Hey, I'll try because I WANT you guys to have it ... it's really pretty and a little different for me.

I added some songs on here for you to enjoy -- the one by Lifehouse ("Everything") can be seen by clicking on You Tube ... it's awesome and can be life changing. I'd love for you to see it. (If you'd prefer not to hear the songs, then just hit the stop button.)

Well ... that's it for today. I just want you guys to know how much we care about you, and would love to hear from you in a comment or by email.

Peace be with you --
Jennifer

What a day ...

Sigh ... what a day this has been. Even though it's not a Friday, I can sure tell it's the 13th .... boy is it the 13th!

Worked on the new chart all day -- first time I've ever done a chart where I had to explain "Areas". There are ten (count 'em, 10!) and some of it's so hard for me to explain and sound like it makes sense. Oh well -- we'll keep working on it. That took most of the day and I'm still not sure it makes sense!

Stupidly put some charts in my mailbox last night knowing I should take them to the post office, but was too lazy to do that. Well guess what -- you got it, someone took it out of the mailbox. They left the flag up, but took the mail. Oy vey ... what's with people?

After deciding to change my blog (why do we do blogs?) address, I realized no one could probably find it unless they went to Ladybug Lane first. How crazy was that of me!!?? So I had to repost the URL for that on some of my Yahoo groups .. and of course, I got it wrong! Well ... I got it right and added the "com" at the end -- but didn't add the dot com. ARGH!!!

Maybe all this is because hubby is in Canada training. He'll be home Saturday, but it's no fun when you feel like the other half of you is missing. So ... just for him ... I posted a link to a song I love. Go look/listen if you have a chance (under songs for a flower child).

Before I go today ... I'd like some help if you have time or feel "creative". I'm working on a teeny tiny set of designs to be released next year, and I want to call the group something fun and interesting. I don't want to infringe on other designers, but can't quite come up with a title for the grouping. Not tinys ... not littles ... minis maybe? If you come up with something -- no matter how trivial you think it sounds -- leave me a comment here, or email me at jennifer@ladybuglane.com (that's DOT COM!).

Hoping for a better day tomorrow -
Jennifer

As Promised

(From my teeny tiny calendar by Becky Kelly)

Good morning and Happy Mothers' Day to all Moms out there. I hope you have an awesome day, and that your children treat you well. MINE DID!!! Woo hoo .... my daughter Cara sent me the most wonderful gift -- a digital picture frame. Oh ... and the best part is she filled it up with pictures she had ... past and present. Now I just have to figure out how to put more on there ... where DID I put that instruction manual???

Anyhow -- as promised -- below is a tiny tiny teaser of our new design -- "Let Freedom Sing". It's going to the framer on Monday and hopefully will be to our Automatic shops near the end of the month, and to our distributors by June 1. We love it! It turned out very very pretty, and hopefully this tiny picture will have you curious enough to want to stitch it too. There are quite a few specialty stitches in it (I said that already didn't I??), and each area has clear concise instructions for you to follow.In any case -- tell your wonderful Local Needlework Shop you want it!

Again ... Happy Mothers' Day to all and Happy Stitching!
Jennifer

Happy May!

Wow ... Can you believe it's MAY already? Well, neither can I ... and as usual, I'm getting further and further behind. With that said though, I'd like to wish my beautiful granddaughter Kaylee a Happy Happy Birthday!!! She's eight years old today ... uh .... yesterday May 1 (see, told ya I was behind!) Anyhow, her card and gift got mailed ON her birthday, so hopefully she'll get it by Monday and have a whole new week of celebrating!

Today we're going to Biloxi, MS to celebrate our 12th anniversay .... which was in March ... see how it goes? Anyhow -- it'll be fun, and getting to spend some quality time with my "sweetheart" is always wonderful!

So ... obviously I'll be getting a little bit more behind on stitching. I hope to put my new design -- "Let Freedom Sing!" out by June 1, so methinks I better stitch a little faster (gosh I miss my wonderful ladies who stitch for me .... where are you Tia Mary and Lisa??) Anyhow, the new design is going to be really, really cute! The birds are singing their little hearts out -- with the help of our ladybug -- and the "Just Another Button Company" stars are looking exceptionally patriotic. The design is stitched on a gorgeous hand-dyed Jobelan from Wichelt ("Bluebell"), and we used threads from Crescent Colours and Weeks Dye Works, with some DMC included. The whole design revolves around a country-inspired flag, and we used several different stitches in this -- cross stitch, back stitch, double herringbone, algerian eyelet, rhodes and satin stitch. Not to worry -- every specialty stitch is illustrated and instructions are clear (at least to me!) I'll try to put up a teaser later this week to give you a preview!

Have a wonderful week and an absolutely gorgeous and blessed May.

With Love,
Jennifer